SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – With his assortment of shimmies, shakes, mid-delivery pauses and surprising quick pitches, Johnny Cueto has mastered the art of messing with a hitter’s timing.

Cueto’s own timing? That continues to be impeccable, too. Why, the Giants’ right-hander even stumbled upon the perfect time to have the worst season of his career.

If Cueto hadn’t struggled with multiple blisters on his pitching hand last year, if he hadn’t strained a forearm muscle while on a minor league rehab assignment, if he hadn’t thrown a career low 147 1/3 innings or finished with a career high 1.45 WHIP or opponents hadn’t strafed him for a worst ever .814 OPS, if his 2017 wasn’t part and parcel of a Giants season that got mangled in the postal sorting machinery, then it’s plausible, at the very least, that Cueto would have opted out of the remaining four years of his contract and left $79 million on the table.

Imagine if Cueto had repeated his 2016...

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